The dancing girls of Lahore inhabit the Diamond Market in the shadow of a great mosque. The twenty-first century goes on outside the walls of this ancient quarter but scarcely registers within. Though their trade can be described with accuracy as prostitution, the dancing girls have an illustrious history: Beloved by emperors and nawabs, their sophisticated art encompassed the best of Mughal culture. The modern-day Bollywood aesthetic, with its love of gaudy spectacle, music, and dance, is their distant legacy. But the life of the pampered courtesan is not the one now being lived by Maha and her three girls. What they do is forbidden by Islam, though tolerated; but they are gandi, "unclean," and Maha's daughters, like her, are born into the business and will not leave it.
Sociologist Louise Brown spent four years in the most intimate study of the family life of a Lahori dancing girl. With beautiful understatement, she turns a novelist's eye on a true story that beggars the imagination. Maha, a classically trained dancer of exquisite grace, had her virginity sold to a powerful Arab sheikh at the age of twelve; when her own daughter Nena comes of age and Maha cannot bring in the money she once did, she faces a terrible decision as the agents of the sheikh come calling once more.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Louise Brown is an academic at Birmingham University, England, and the author of several books on Asia. She frequently returns to Lahore, Pakistan.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
US$ 3.00
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Brand New Copy. Seller Inventory # BBB_new0060740434
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Seller Inventory # think0060740434
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0060740434
Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition 0.75. Seller Inventory # bk0060740434xvz189zvxnew
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published 0.75. Seller Inventory # 353-0060740434-new
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Buy for Great customer experience. Seller Inventory # GoldenDragon0060740434
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Seller Inventory # Wizard0060740434
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. reprint edition. 327 pages. 8.00x5.25x0.75 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0060740434
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Seller Inventory # B9780060740436
Book Description Seller Inventory # STOCK00006815